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In architecture, it's easy to focus on physical results: a museum addition’s flashy exterior, a city park’s new playground, the eight-story atrium in a new office tower. Stunning photography shows the results. It’s also easy to focus on metrics: energy saved, water conserved, waste recycled, square footage increased or reduced. Numbers convey the results. But the physical results and metrics are only half the story. Photos and numbers rarely capture the most important part of the design. What’s missing is the transformation. What’s missing is the impact on human behavior. The right design can boost creativity, improve attitudes, reduce friction, encourage connections, facilitate cooperation, and reinforce values. Do you know how to tell that side of the story? THE LONG TAIL OF TRANSFORMATION Transformation often emerges long after the punch list is complete or the ribbon cutting is over, making it hard for architects to document. By necessity, designers have moved on to the next project. But circling back with a client to review a project is the best way to understand its transformative impact. Call it a check-in call, a follow-up questionnaire, or a multi-faceted Post-Occupancy Evaluation, whatever approach you take to gathering feedback will offer invaluable insights into how your design changed the way the client, the staff, or the community works. It’s quite possible that you accurately forecasted the impact your design would have—more collaboration in the workplace, better traffic flow across a campus, fewer conflicts in a homeless shelter, or an increased sense of safety in a parking ramp. After all, designers often surface such goals in the pre-design process. But reviewing the outcomes with a client will not only confirm that the intended transformations actually came about, it will also likely reveal unexpected benefits from your design. You may discover that: · Better workplace collaboration led to the development of a new team. · Improved traffic flow across campus reduced absenteeism at faculty meetings and in classes. · Less conflict among shelter residents allowed staff to spend more time working on programs that would help guests find permanent housing. All of these outcomes are the results of changes in human behavior. That’s the transformation. 5 WAYS TO UNCOVER TRANSFORMATION If you’re not sure how to uncover the transformation in your projects—or how to highlight it—here’s a method: 1. Schedule quarterly check-in calls with your client for a full year once a project is complete. 2. Ask them about human behaviors. Are people more punctual? Happier? Healthier? 3. Write down observations and anecdotes that spotlight unexpected changes in human behavior. 4. Share your findings verbally with others to see what impresses them—and to home in on the key change. Practice allows you to find the most concise way to communicate the transformation. 5. Identify transformations that align with the goals of your prospects. Then surface those stories in business development meetings, cover letters, and pursuits to get them thinking. One parting thought: I recently shared my views on storytelling and transformation with a friend who spent several years in Turkey. He chimed in that storytellers in that part of the world often start stories with a variation on the usual “Once upon a time.” In Turkish, the opening phrase roughly translates into “One there was—and once there wasn’t.” The beginning hints at the end! In my opinion, that phrase perfectly sums up the nature of transformation. Once there was a problem: a challenge, a gap, a crisis, bad weather, a lack of confidence, or some other trouble. What once there wasn’t—and what your design can bring about—is harmony, success, increased confidence or visibility, and happiness for the human beings who inhabit your spaces. ∎
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